Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1867 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VII. COLUMBA'S LAST YEARS--HIS DEATH--HIS CHARACTER. Columba the confidant of the joys and consoler of the sorrows of domestic life.--He blesses little Hector with the fair locks.--He prays for a woman in her delivery; he reconciles the wife of a pilot to her husband.--Vision of the saved wife who receives her husband in heaven. --He continues his missions to the end of his life.--Visions before death.--The Angels' Hill.--Increase of austerities.--Nettle-soup his sole food. --A supernatural light surrounds him during his nightly work and prayers. --His death is retarded for four years by the prayers of the community.--When this respite has expired, he takes leave of the monks at their work; he visits and blesses the granaries of the monastery.--He announces his death to his attendant Diarmid.--His farewell to his old white horse.--Last benediction to the isle of Iona; last work of transcription; last message to his community.--He dies in the church.--Review of his life and character. By the side of the terrible acts of vengeance which have just been narrated, the student loves to find in this bold enemy of the wicked and the oppressor a gentle and familiar sympathy for all the affections as well as all the trials of domestic life. Rich and poor, kings and peasants, awoke in his breast the same kindly emotion, expressed with the same fulness. When King A'idan brought his children to him, and spoke of his anxiety about their future lives, he did not content himself with seeing the eldest. "Have you none younger ?" said the abbot; "bring them all--let me hold them in my arms and on my heart!" And when the younger children were brought, one fair-haired boy, Hector (Eochaidh Buidhe), came forward running, and threw himself upon the...